Hall Davison Blogs Draft

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Social software as support in hybrid learning environments: the value of the blog as a tool forreflective learning and peer support by Hazel Hall and Brian Davison DRAFT

DRAFT accepted for publication in LISR on 6th April 2007.

Social software as support in hybrid learning environments: the value ofthe blog as a tool for reflective learning and peer support

To be published in Library and Information Science Research(Elsevier).

NOTICE: this is the authors version of the work that was accepted for publication in Libraryand Information Science Research. Changes resulting from the publishing process, such aspeer review, editing, corrections, structured formatting, and other quality control mechanismsare not be reflected in this document. Changes have been made to this work since it was

accepted for publication. A definitive version has been subsequently published in Library andInformation Science Research 29(2), 163-187. (DOI 10.1016/j.lisr.2007.04.007.)

Authors

Hazel Hall and Brian DavisonSchool of Computing

Napier UniversityEdinburgh EH10 5DTUK

Biographical notes

Hazel Hall

Dr Hazel Hall is Senior Lecturer in the School of Computing at Napier University, Edinburghwhere she teaches modules on knowledge management, business information sources, andinformation delivery at undergraduate and postgraduate level. Her research interests include

the education and training of information professionals, online information services provision,business information sources and services, online communities and collaboration, and the

impact of the areas listed on knowledge management activity within organizations.

Brian Davison

Brian Davison is Lecturer and Teaching Fellow in the School of Computing at Napier

University. His teaching centres predominantly on the management of technology inorganizational contexts. Before joining Napier in 2002, he had built up 13 years industryexperience in project and service management in both public sector and commercial

organizations.


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Abstract

This article reports on an investigation of the potential of blog technology for encouraging

interaction between students, and its consequences in terms of peer learning and peer

support, on a module that forms part of an accredited library and information science (LIS)

degree program. The findings consider the treatment of blogs in the domain of LIS, with

particular reference to educational settings. Content analysis revealed that blogs offer

comparable and additional benefits to predecessors designed to encourage reflective

engagement with teaching material, such as learning journals. Most notable is the level of

shared peer support evident in the online discussions between class members. The findings

of this study are of particular interest to LIS educators who seek to develop their consideration

of blogs in the classroom beyond simply identifying them as an option for online information

provision, to deploying them as learning tools in their own right.

1. Introduction

Blogs (or weblogs) have experienced a rapid rate of uptake among Internet users in recent

years. According to Technorati(n.d.) there are some 55 million of these frequently updated

web sites which, typically, display in reverse chronological order the work of the main

author(s), with facilities for the comments of others to be integrated into the main entries and

for links to be made out to other Internet resources, with the most recent entries supported by

an archive of earlier posts. Early research related to blogs claimed that they were popular

simply because they were novel (Stiler & Philleo, 2003). However, novelty alone cannot

explain why millions of personal and special interest blogs are set up, maintained and

integrated into the Internet mainstream. Nor does it adequately account for the speed at

which blogging has been adopted by users for serious applications in domains as disparate

as journalism (Perrone, 2002), business (Kharif, 2004), medicine (Herper, 2003) and

education (Smith, 2007).

The growth in the popularity of blogs as educational tools may be accounted for by a

compelling set of arguments offered to persuade teachers of the benefits that can be

experienced by student bloggers. It has been claimed, for example, that students who take up


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blogging witness improvements in a range of skills, such as writing and debating (e.g.

Downes, 2004). Added to this, because a blog environment facilitates common access to

class members work, it has been proposed that classroom blog acti vity prompts the creation

of self-supporting online student communities (e.g. Walker, 2005). In the context of mass

higher education, where year on year fewer resources are allocated to support greater

numbers, teaching staff may be attracted to the potential of a tool that can offer such

advantages, especially if it is one that is readily available and easy to implement. However,

enthusiastic claims for blogging in educational settings are founded on a research base that is

currently limited: little empirical work lies behind them. This realization presents instructors

with a number of problems when they are designing courses. Amongst these is how they can

be sure that the effort devoted to encouraging students to blog in class will repay on the

investment made. Such problems may be magnified in institutions where, on the basis of

anecdotal success stories, managers are persuaded of the economic (perhaps rather than the

educational) value of introducing blogs into the classroom.

2. Research questions and problem statement

The focus of the investigation described in this article is the potential of blog technology for

encouraging interaction between students, and its consequences in terms of peer learning

and peer support, on a module that forms part of an accredited library and information

science (LIS) degree program in the UK. In this case, the requirement for students to

compose weekly blog entries replaced the previous practice of composing private entries in a

closed, word-processed journal. The primary motivation to undertake the research project

described in this article was the desire to make sense of the extent to which blogs promote

reflective learning. If it were discovered that blogs did indeed fulfil this function, a further area

of interest would be to establish the best means of exploiting features of blogging to

encourage deep reflection into future presentations of the undergraduate module under

discussion. It should be emphasized here that although it was suspected that the adoption of

blogging as a development of the use of learning journals would increase the opportunities for

students to reflect on their learning, it was not a given. Thus, the study sought to address the

following research questions:


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1. To what extent can blog technology serve as a means of encouraging interaction

between students in a module cohort?

2. What are the consequences of this interaction in terms of peer learning and peer

support?

3. Do students using blogs experience benefits comparable to those identified with

traditional learning journals?

It was anticipated that the findings would develop the small body of existing knowledge on

educational blogging. In turn, this would provide an evidence base for those considering the

deployment of this technology to stimulate interactions between class members for purposes

related to peer learning, peer support and reflective learning practice. The findings of the

study are of particular interest to LIS educators who seek to develop their consideration of

blogs in the classroom beyond simply identifying them as an option for online information

services provision (as has been dominant practice to date, for example where blogs have

served as a platform for delivery of current awareness services) to deploying them as learning

tools in their own right.

3. Blogs and library and information science

Despite their recent general wide-spread adoption, there are co-existing levels of frustration

and enthusiasm associated with blogs amongst members of the LIS community. It is perhaps

the sheer variety of blogs in terms of subject matter, quality of content and impetus for

creation - that accounts for this. Attitudes towards blogging range from plaudits for a serious

application of social software to dismissal of frivolous endeavour: Web logs are either one of

the most important Internet phenomena of recent years, or possibly the silliest (Clyde, 2002).

The debate that ensued following the publication of the 2005 American Library Association

President Elects paper Revenge of the blog people (Gorman, 2005) provided a good

illustration of the wide range of views of blogs and blogging amongst LIS professionals.

In spite of the dismissive attitudes of some, however, it is possible to cite numerous examples

of how librarians and information scientists are exploiting blog technology. For example, the

publicly accessible Library Weblogssite (Library weblogs, n.d.) demonstrates the ease of


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taking advantage of the format to provide news and current awareness services to the LIS

community. This may be on general issues (for example, LISNews, 2006), or on specific

areas of interest (for example, Handheld Librarian, 2007). Here LIS professionals are both the

providers and the consumers of the information that is disseminated. The consumption of blog

content created by otherscan also be important to librarians and information scientists in the

workplace. For example, previous research on blogs in the business environment shows that

entries can serve as a source of competitive intelligence and, as such, have a strong role to

play in activities such as environmental scanning and the monitoring of products and services

(Habermann, 2005). In other library contexts blogs are regarded as a further means of

engaging users with information content. In these circumstances, the format is deployed

primarily to push out news, although not necessarily with the expectation that those targeted

will make contributions in return (for example, see the case of Gateshead Public Libraries

service (Gateshead libraries, 2007)).

One of the domains of LIS work in which blogs have generated the most interest has been in

knowledge management (KM). Here blogs act as locales for online dialog, where new

knowledge is created through good conversation. This function has been recognised in the

corporate environment with a growth in organizational blogging, as reported in the LIS trade

press (for example, Social media revolution? 2006, p. 13). Equally the literature of school

librarianship points to practice where l ibrarians have been able to take advantage of the blog

format beyond straightforward information services provision and consumption. Oatman

(2005), for example, reports how blogs are deployed in schools for pupil-to-pupil

communication and the display of work. Another high school case study argues that blogs can

serve to promote literacy through story-telling, to encourage communication, to motivate

interest in writing, and to collect feedback from class members. This is because, it is claimed,

they furnish a space for work and reflection (Clyde, 2005). These two forms of blog

application, supported by librarians and information scientists in the business and educational

environment, align with four of the five (see footnote 1) main motivations to blog, as identified

in the research literature: (1) to provide commentary and opinions; (2) to express deeply felt

emotions; (3) to articulate ideas through writing and (4) to form and maintain community

forums (Nardi, Schiano, Gumbrecht, & Swartz, 2004).


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Two of the popular practical uses of blogs made by LIS practitioners as noted above, i.e. the

provision of information (notably news and current awareness services), and the support

collaborative working in the spirit of KM principles, are reflected in instances of LIS educators

introduction of blog software into the classroom. For example, in the School of Library and

Information Science at the University of Iowa in 2001, students registered for a course on

electronic publishing explored blogs for the delivery of tailored information services (Ep: the

weblog, 2001).A similar approach to the dissemination of information was adopted in 2002 by

students following a course on computers and libraries at the University of Iceland. Here they

maintained a blog that carried news about web sites related to the use of IT in libraries

(ComLib, 2002). At the University of Arizona LIS students have been exposed to blogs as a

site for collaborative working. As part of the summer 2004 course Decision making for

information professionals students were encouraged to blog to sharethoughts,

observations, and ideas regarding decision making in the digital environment (Decision

making for information professionals, 2004). A further example at Athens University of

Economics and Business (AUEB) shows how the blogs strengths as a tool for disseminating

information and an environment for collaborative working were combined. Students

undertaking the KM program were required to display the output of their research into KM

tools and techniques as entries on a class blog (AUEBknowledge management 2004, 2005).

They were also required to comment on the links between tools and techniques that they had

identified as a result of engaging with the contributions of the other students. The examples

cited here thus show how LIS educators have succeeded in tying the blog as an instructional

tool to ways in which students may use it in their future occupational roles as librarians and

information scientists. These efforts are commendable in that they give the students the

chance to develop and practice professional skills in the dissemination of information and

collaborative working. However, they are limited in that they do not appear to take full

advantage of the blog format as a platform for learning. It might be concluded that an

important aspect of blogging is underplayed in the LIS education setting, viz the blogs role as

a stimulant for reflective learning, and this is one of the main issues that the research

presented here sought to address.


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4. Blogs, learning journals and reflective learning

A theoretical underpinning for learning as an iterative activity can be found in Kolb's

experiential learning cycle (Kolb, 1982). Students are assumed to approach a subject with a

set of nave concepts that need to be challenged by the learning context. Through reflection

on this experience, students are expected to explore for themselves the realities of the

subject area, and this leads to a growth in their knowledge. The challenge for tutors is how to

encourage students to engage in deep productive reflection during their studies in order to

bring about the desired elaboration of their subject competence. This paper considers the

question of whether students engaged in the authoring of comments on the blog entries of

others experience an enhanced process of knowledge construction through collective

encouragement of reflective learning. It might be expected that as they compose their own

blog entries, students have the opportunity to reflect on their individual experience and

understanding and this, in turn, encourages them to modify their own beliefs and behavior in

relation to the subject studied.

If this is the case, the blog can be regarded as the successor to the learning journal or

learning log (as described, for example, by Park (2003)), because it serves as a vehicle for

individual reflection. Traditional learning journals provide learners with a mechanism for

documenting their own understanding and behavior as it develops. This activity captures

qualitative information about the developmental process that might otherwise be lost, and

which the learner can use to compare past and current behavior. A more immediate benefit of

learning journals is identified by Holly (1994), who discusses the interpretative aspect of

composing a journal entry. Journals can operate at different levels of formality. A common

structure is for the learner to set personal targets, or to negotiate targets with the tutor, and

then to document progress towards those targets over time (Barclay, 1996). The private

nature of such journals is seen as an advantage (Thorpe, 2004). The theory is that learners

feel less inhibited about disclosing their true feelings and anxieties regarding their level of

understanding because they are not under scrutiny. It is also suggested that assessment be

avoided to further liberate the learner to take advantage of the private space afforded by the

journal (King, 2002, p. 25). In certain subject areas with a clear vocational focus, or where

learners are expected to produce a large written output, this may be appropriate. In this


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essentially unregulated context, however, the responsibility for deriving educational value

from the learning journal lies firmly with the learner. It is difficult to see how learners in other

contexts would be sufficiently motivated to persevere with the maintenance of their journals

without the added incentive of assessment. A further drawback of private journals is the

sense of isolation reported by individuals when asked to evaluate their experience of keeping

a journal as part of their studies (Barclay, 1996, p. 34). Moreover, a private journal may chart

the development of individual perspective on subject matter, but this precludes external

challenges to that developing perspective. Participants in earlier studies where collaborative

or public journals have been used exhibit positive, or at least ambivalent, attitudes to this

more open variation (Alterio, 2004; Nckles, 2004). This would suggest that privacy concerns

expressed earlier result from excessive caution on the part of the tutors. On balance, there is

much to be gained from a degree of interaction surrounding reflective journal entries if this

can be engineered. Giving learners access to each others work exposes them to a range of

different perspectives on the same subject matter, thus providing additional opportunities to

challenge their own understanding. Allowing learners opportunities to give one another

comments and feedback further enhances the possibilities around a subject area, and opens

the further possibility of peer learning and peer support. It should be acknowledged, however,

that this can be at the cost of sacrificing of individual freedom to take a stand, disagree with

another persons perspective, or explore a controversial topic, while secure in the knowledge

that what is written will only be seen by the instructor or, in some cases, remain completely

confidential. Similarly, compulsion to participate in a public forum may not suit introverts, or

those for whom the issues to be discussed are novel (Hew & Cheung, n.d.). The effect that

this may have on the quality and depth of students discussions in an online environment is

recognized.

Here the blog has the advantage of being able to uphold the journals notion of writing as an

intrinsically reflective activity, and students can adapt the practices common to learning

journals, such as setting targets for content, to the blog environment. In addition, it would

appear that a journal in the form of a blog overcomes some of the constraints of its off-line

equivalent. For example, the public nature of the format, and the possibility that others may

comment on an individuals work, may address issues of isolation, and encourage peer


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learning and support. This public aspect of blogs also exposes the authors own thoughts to

be challenged by others as part of the constructivist learning context. The evolution of blogs

would thus seem to provide an environment with an appropriate balance of characteristics to

facilitate peer support and interaction. (It should be noted that in this context the term

interact is understood in the sense of individuals making actions that are in close relation

with one another. Thus interactions across a set of blogs may range from extensive dialogs

between two or more people - as may be observed in tools such as bulletin boards that offer

threaded discussions - to simple reactive comment prompted by the content of an existing

blog entry offered by one person to another.)

Yet to be debated at length in the LIS literature, some researchers from other domains have

already considered the role of blogs in reflective learning processes. Nardi et al (2004), for

example, discuss blogs with reference to thinking by writing activity, where the goal is to

take advantage of the general nature of weblogs as public journals in using them for

personal reflection, in the context of a learning community, on issues that arise in the course,

both rhetorical and course-related (Nardi et al., 2004, p. 45). This can be achieved when

students carry out some research, post results to their blogs and then comment on one

anothers output. Also of relevance to the question of reflective learning is the sense of

community that can be felt amongst a set of blogging students. It is claimed that in a blogging

setting the sense of community is stronger than that experienced by students in the

conventional classroom (Dickey, 2004; Nardi et al., 2004, p. 46). Unlike discussion fora and

other online communication tools, blogs provide a peculiar mixture of the personal and the

public, and it is perhaps this that underpins their value for encouraging reflection. The specific

ownership of a blog confers an authority to one particular voice, and therefore legitimises any

and all contributions from that individual. Readers of the blog may progress a discussion by

leaving comments or links, but the authority to lead, continue or alter the course of the

discussion lies with the owner. This asymmetry is understood by all users of the blog, and is

an integral part of the blog's structure. This clear ownership principle takes advantage of the

democratic nature of online communications while preserving the freedom of expression that

is valued in a personal diary or journal. Drawing on the shared cultural understanding of the

diary format, the intuitive chronological development of the blog is another direct parallel with


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the creation of journal entries. Taking into account these arguments about structure and

legitimacy of the main author, it is not surprising that Oravec (2003) noted that blogs may be

regarded as a suitable online representation of the learning journal.

It follows that a deeper understanding of learners attitudes to blogs and blogging is needed to

ensure the preservation of the characteristics of the learning journal that lead to genuine

reflection, while at the same time providing a supportive environment that encourages dialog

and peer support in the informal sense. However, to date there has been no extensive

research into blogging in an LIS educational setting. This is not to say that there is a lack of

published literature on blogs. Indeed, much has been written about them. For instance, there

are publications that discuss how to evaluate them, how they are consumed, and how they

might be used to engage end-users. There are also examples of how blogs are used in both

general educational settings (for example, Downes, 2004), and with reference to specific

courses (for example: Brooks, Nichols & Priebe, 2004; Walker, 2005; Williams & Jacobs,

2004). However, genuine empirical research on blogs is limited (Herring, Scheidt, Bonus &

Wright, 2004, p. 3; Williams & Jacobs, 2004). In addition, much of this output is authored by

enthusiasts from beyond the domain of LIS (Clyde, 2004, p. 207) who, despite the

proliferation of journal blogs, more readily tend to examine the other types (Herring et al.,

2004, p. 6). Thus, findings on the characteristics of blogs are biased against the most

common blog examples. In addition, papers found in the extant literature related to blogging

in educational settings are often deficient as sources of information for those who would like

to take advantage of the technology to improve student learning. In fact, published research

that discusses the means of maximising the value of the blog format across the full range of

applications is lacking:

There is a clear need to interrogate the range of blogging styles used by different

disciplines and cultural groups and to develop a lexicon to articulate the most

effective blogging mechanisms for different contexts. (Bruns & Jacobs, 2006, p. 3.)

Downes work (2004) typifies a common problem evident in writing on blogs in education.

This is an enthusiastic article on the educational functions of blogs as diaries for students,

as a means of disseminating information about the class, as locales for class discussions


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with reference to institutions such as the State University of New York and Cornell College.

Unfortunately the presentation of the work hints that its findings are based on anecdotal

evidence such as stories of practice, rather than data derived from well-executed research. In

work such as this, readers are encouraged to observe how blogs (and other technologies)

can achieve particular learning objectives, but are unconvinced as to whether they actually

do so in practice. Another drawback of the work on educational blogging is that it often fails to

provide adequate explanation of what is discovered in the studies reported. For example,

Dickey (2004) presents some evidence for reduced feelings of isolation and alienation in an

online learning context that made use of blogs, but does not draw concrete conclusions about

why this might be the case. Likewise, Brooks et al. (2004) assumed that the requirement to

blog in class would lead to an improvement in students writing skills. However, they were

unable to uncover sufficient evidence to support this contention (Brooks et al., 2004, para 6).

Thus, tutors and designers of online learning environments are currently faced with the

challenge of understanding mechanisms at work in the blog environment without a research

base on which to draw when making decisions on course design.

5. Research design

5.1 The student cohort

The study was based on the deployment of course-assessed blogs in a closed environment

as part of a third year UK undergraduate module entitled Information Delivery. Class

material for the module was presented in part face-to-face with three hours of class contact

time per week, and in part online through a dedicated module portal. The students were thus

studying in a hybrid learning environment that maintained some of the features of a traditional

taught class, such as weekly lectures, in combination with access to a set of online learning

tools presented via the portal. In its previous form the module had required students to keep a

learning journal in which they discussed the module themes of information behavior and

associated technological support mechanisms, and were expected to reflect on their learning.

Moving this activity into the blog space was considered a natural step in the modules

development, not least because it extended the opportunity for students to review and reflect


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on the work of one another. Much of the module content related to the phenomenon of

information overload and to targeted information provision as a means of combating end-user

problems in handling information. It was thus appropriate that students were exposed to blogs

(along with other examples of communications technologies) and that their functions were

related to information delivery. This was particularly important for the students who were

taking the module as part of the degree offered by the School that is accredited by the

Chartered Institute of Library and Information Professionals (CILIP), and who expected to

follow careers in LIS. It can be argued that graduates of such programs who have used blogs

in practice (as opposed to simply heard about them, or looked at examples, in class) should

be better prepared to implement such tools successfully in the work -place. For all students

the exercise was deemed worthwhile given that many of them would enter employment in

large, distributed, multinational firms that depend on electronic communication to link

employees.

Further benefits of encouraging discussion of the module content in the blog environment

were related to the profile of the student cohort registered for the module. A large proportion

of those who took the class were international students whose first language was not English.

Typically, in a traditional classroom, these students are reluctant to speak out. In contrast, in

online environments they feel more empowered to do so (Kirkpatrick, 2005). When blogging,

for example, there is more time to compose a contribution to the discussion, poor English may

be more readily tolerated, and difficulties associated with strong accents or poor

pronunciation are irrelevant. Added to this, students who come from cultures where student-

centred learning is not the norm are encouraged to join in the spirit of the inclusive

curriculum and take ownership of their learning experience in a way that is more explicit than

in a class which relies on traditional face-to-face discussions. It should also be noted that the

majority of the students on the module were sophisticated computer users and, as such, were

expected to accept the requirement to record their reactions to the module using novel

software. Although it was not necessary to present the exercise to the students in this way, it

could be argued that the requirement for the students to subject their work to the scrutiny of

their classmates was a form of group work or class participation. Equally, composing blog

entries was the equivalent of speaking out in class, reading the blog entries of others mapped


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on to listening, and making comments on others entries took the place of class discussion. In

the event, the majority of the students had not created a blog before, and none had ever been

asked to produce a blog for a course work assessment.

To set the context for the main discussion in this paper, it is worth noting the students

reactions to the requirement of the module to keep a blog, and comment on the blog entries

made by their classmates. Many recorded their perceptions of the task set in their postings.

Through an examination of these data, it is possible to see how the students reflected on the

blog exercise per se as they worked their way through the module materials.

It is evident that at the start there was a degree of initial puzzlement as to the role and

purpose of (in one students words) the mysterious blog. Early postings show how the

novelty of the task made it difficult:

Its kinda hard to know what is expected from the blog entries if you havent done it

before.

As a result, some students exhibited a lack of confidence in the value of their weekly entries:

I dont know what to write for our blog entries. I dont really understand what it is

for, so I write what I have done and what I think about it.

What are we actually supposed to be doing in these blogs? As I understand it they

are meant to be our thoughts and feelings about whats happened in the week past

but this is completely new and a little intimidating as well what I do worry about is

finding 300 words that are valid and worth something to my degree.

I am intrigued by the blogs they are a good idea to reflect on the week but I am

also concerned as to when to write them I am worried that if I leave it till the end of

the week I am likely [to forget what to write].

In contrast others quickly appreciated the rationale behind the exercise. They revealed in

early entries their expectations with reference to the goal of encouraging reflective learning:

I think this whole blog thing is probably a way of getting us to reflect on what we have

learned at its simplest level, and extra reflection may be of more benefit than just

writing stuff down. I think its quite a good idea that we are able to read other peoples


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blogs to get more varied opinions of the module it could probably help clarify things

said in the lectures, or provide different ways of thinking about any one subject.

Some of these entries pointed to specific long-term advantages of keeping the blog, such as a

means of preparing for the exam at the end of the academic year, and for developing skills for

future study and work environments:

Well, here we go. My first ever blog, woohoo! Anyway, I thought being told to reflect

on what I have learnt after every lecture was some interesting advice I probably

have never really reflected on what I have been learning, and [have] seen lectures as

a place to get extra information... I think [that] having to reflect on what I have learned

will probably help me understand more clearly and take it all in more easily. I also

think that when I come to revise [for the exam] the information wont feel as new.

Understanding that I gain by reflecting in the blogs will most likely help me pass the

exam and then apply these ideas to other modules, and maybe even in my career.

The blogs are a tool of this module [as if] we were in a company. We have to show

that we can evolve as students, team members and maybe as employees.

Later entries show that how these general expectations were met. The entry below is typical

of postings of this type from towards the end of the semester:

I feel that these blog entries have been very useful to me during the course of this

module. It has made me reflect upon the weeks events, and also [on] how the lecture

material links up with all of the group tasks that we have been asked to perform.

As well as expressing general expectations of the task set, the students identified a number of

additional specific reasons why keeping a blog might be useful in their studies. These

included motivating them to engage with the module in general (Blogs another word for

commitment); to try out a new way of learning; to pace their work out over the course of the

semester; to force them to complete the weekly reading exercises; and to practice their

writing skills. There was also enthusiasm for learning from one another by consulting the

growing online resource. Again, there is evidence in the archive of postings that these

expectations were met, as is demonstrated in the two comments below:


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[Other students] blogs about the topic help me understand the concepts. Your blog is

a prime example of this. Thanks.

I am also still trying to get to grips with this module, and have not attempted to use

[the library portal]. After reading this blog I think that I will get some extra help from

someone with experience of [the library portal] to avoid any problems that may arise.

Some resourceful individuals found other practical uses for the archive of postings, as well as

speculated on its long-term value beyond the semester in which they were registered for the

module. For example one student read the blogs of colleagues in the other labs in order to

anticipate the work in the week ahead:

If you navigate around you can find information about the next tutorial Some groups

have tutorials earlier than our group, and they may give us a small advantage.

Equally, another student highlighted how the tutors could trawl the blog output as a resource

for student feedback:

As the students put down their thoughts and feelings in the blogs, Brian and Hazel

can use them to get useful material on how the module material can be modified

before it is taught to the next set of students.

It should be noted, however, that not everyone was an enthusiastic blogger, despite the

encouragement and enthusiasm of the tutors. For example, one student complained:

My blog content makes me sound like a grumpy old man and, who knows, I might be

just that. I dont enjoy reading! I dont enjoy writing! I find evaluating theoretical

material a duty. Brian and Hazel are so enthusiastic, and I think that some of that rubs

off and makes me more enthusiastic. Unfortunately I go home again and realise that I

have to read another article and write another blog and read several other blogs and

think of something to say about them.

Specific concerns related to finding the time and motivation to complete the weekly task. The

requirement to comment on the work of the others was viewed as a particularly difficult and

tedious chore. However, the cohort as a whole was open-minded about the exercise and


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anticipated that the true value of what they were expected to achieve would become evident

in the course of the module delivery:

It is still early days to tell how effective this exercise will be, but its also proving to be

an interesting experience.

Writing my blog is quite a burden every week. Anyway, I guess we are going to

have similar stresses in full time jobs, so it may be a good thing to get into the

practice of doing weekly written tasks.

The rate at which students who had initial doubts bought into the system varied across the

group. Two to three weeks into the module a number postings appeared expressing opinions

in line with the content of the examples quoted below:

My first impressions on having to write a blog every week were pretty negative! After

thinking about it for a few days I have come to the conclusion that its probably not

such a bad thing! I think that writing a blog every week will help students to focus on

the module and also lead to discussions and observations from the

lectures/practicals.

At first I thought the blog entry was pretty pointless and I had nothing to gain from this

experience, and how wrong have I been. This is the first time since the start of the

Information Delivery module [week 3] that I have found the idea of writing a blog

useful. Im now starting to realise the importance of reflecting on what I have learned

and what happened in the previous week.

I also questioned the validity of keeping a blog, but after doing one and reading a

journal article I began to think it was going to be of use to help me understand.

Equally, towards the end of their time on the module when the students looked back on what

they had achieved, attitudes towards the requirement to blog had changed:

The task of doing the blogs often felt like a chore to do every week, but in many ways

they were a great help to me.

At the beginning doing the blog entry was boring Doing the blog entries [now]

isnt a task any more.


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Its quite amazing (and scary lol) to read this blog again, and Id like to advise future

students that it is really helpful to keep a blog when it is well done.

Of course, one broad criticism of the whole exercise is the inauthenticity of the set-up. This

did not go unnoticed amongst the students. Key to discussions was the issue of the obligation

to blog in exchange for marks. One student remarked that this was not how blogs develop in

the real world:

Since there is an element of grading there is pressure to update the blog with

something relevant in a certain timeframe not usually something that you would

expect with a blog.

Others suggested that classmates were simply writing what they thought would please the

lecturers, rather than their true feelings, and doubted whether anything would be written at all

if the work were not graded. In short:

[This] is a module, and the blog is part of the coursework. We have to do a blog entry

each week we do it for a grade.

The opportunity to gain marks for blog entries was an incentive to participate:

I think that it is good that we are given marks because it makes us have a go at

attempting to write blogs every week. If we were asked to write blogs every week, but

were given no marks, then I doubt very many people would actually do it!

It is difficult to judge the extent to which the students were simply playing the game to

ensure that they passed the module. Certainly, of the main motivations to participate in online

environments usefulness of acting (Hall, 2001, p. 140), in this case securing marks, may be

regarded as the most powerful. However, it should be noted that much of what students are

asked to do in an educational setting is inauthentic (for example, they are commissioned to

concoct consultant reports based around contrived case studies, they are charged with

analyzing abstract concepts in essay format etc.). It can thus be argued that his exercise was

authentic in the context of students position. Furthermore, for this module many of the

students relished the freedom of the blog format, produced much more material than the

minimum specified, and celebrated the openness of entries:


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The blog in Information Delivery was liberated from strict rules and that gave us

the [opportunity] to comment and express our personal opinion or even thoughts, [on]

many things about the module.

Ive often read your blogs because I like your honesty. I really enjoyed your first

paragraph, especially for the proposition [that each weeks blog entry is] An online

essay of 1000 words a week for torture I like it when there is a touch of fun in the

entries.

Although it was possible to pass the module by doing the absolute minimum, it was

heartening to see that the majority of the students took the task seriously, often produced

work over and above the minimum requirement, even admitted that they were enjoying the

experience, and - in some cases - neatly tied it to the main themes of the module:

Rather perversely I have enjoyed this module and the blog writing in general.

I am really enjoying blogging. It is a great outlet to vent your thoughts, and in the

context of this module it is a perfect example of knowledge creation.

5.2 The blog dataset

A total of 79 personal blogs were produced by the students on the module over the 15 weeks

of its duration in 2005. Students were required to make a weekly entry to their own blog, and

to contribute at least two comments per week on the blogs of any other students in the nine

groups that were taking the class. Regular sets of blog hints were provided to the whole

class in the form of three or four broad questions in order to break down the blog task and

stimulate a reflective approach to individual consideration of the module material covered

each week. Students were further encouraged to be reflective in their blog entries and

comments in the assessment description, in lectures and in the blog marking criteria. The

instructions drew attention to the requirement for entries to:

be relevant to the weeks lecture, reading and/or practical exercise;

make links between theory and experience whenever possible;


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demonstrate understanding of the material covered or clearly articulate areas of

difficulty;

justify points made by referring to the source material on which any judgements were

made, and/or through reasoned argument, and/or using illustrative examples from

the practical exercises completed in the labs for the module or other personal

experience.

The students were also requested to ensure that their work was well presented within the

constraints of the medium. Other than this, students received no guidance or instruction

regarding the type of postings that were expected. They were therefore free to interpret the

exhortation to be reflective to mean that they should challenge each others statements as

much as possible in an attempt to demonstrate critical analysis. A range of possible types of

comment might therefore arise according to individual students interpretation of the task, and

an analysis of the characteristics of these comments should provide an insight into the value

of such interaction. Of particular interest in this case was the level of support that students

may expect to derive from the environment, and the apparent degree of reflection.

Although the instructions did not forbid the students from doing so, very few used the blog

environment to discuss issues other than those related to the syllabus of the module. There

were few instances of the exchange of trivia. This is in contrast to the findings of other

studies of student use of computer mediated communication technologies in educational

environments (see footnote 2).

5.3 Coding and content analysisprocedures

Content analysis, a technique common in the assessment of online interactions, and one

which has been deployed in other studies of blogs (e.g. Herring, 2004; Swain, 2006), was

adopted as the technique to extract the data from the blogs produced during the module.

Since the main focus of this study was the interactiveaspect of blogs, the analysis focused on

blog comments, rather than the main entries. Included in the analysis were all first-level

comments (i.e. comments on main blog postings, rather than further comments on

comments). In total this amounted to 905 comments which related to 625 original blog

postings.


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The coding scheme developed by Kember, Jones, Loke, McKay, Sinclair, Tse, Webb, Wong,

Wong, & Yeung (1999) provides a good basis for judging the reflective content of blogs. For

this study a simplified version was deployed to categorise the data collected from the

comments. It identified comments as reflective, non-reflective or content-free. The third

category allowed for the possibility that a comment may not make explicit reference to any

substantive points in the main blog entry. Such an entry might still have value, however, on an

affective level.

The study also sought to assess two other factors of the blog entries: propositional stance

and affective tone. Propositional stance draws on the idea of illocutionary force from the

theory of speech acts (Austin, 1962). In the context of this study it refers to whether a

student's comment on anothers blog entry support ed or challenged the original points made.

The term as deployed here indicates the distinction between general agreement or

disagreement between the commenter and the author of the original blog entry. The affective

tone refers to the degree to which students making comments on others entries offered

support or exhibited destructive linguistic behavior, i.e. behavior that would tend to destroy the

continuity and quality of the dialog, in response to the work on which they were commenting.

Blog comments containing little or no substantive content, but which exhibited positive

affective tone, would indicate a generally supportive environment where students could

expect acceptance and encouragement for their postings. Likewise, comments that

challenged the original blog entry in a positive way can be assumed to have facilitated further

dialog and reflection by both participants. Negative challenges, on the other hand, could stifle

reflection and introduce distractions into the conversation.

It was anticipated that an investigation of the degree of reflection, propositional stance and

affective tone of blog comments would indicate the extent to which the blog environment is

supportive for students, and how inclined students are to make reflective contributions in the

online environment.

The coding scheme used in this study, as summarised in Table 1 below, was straightforward,

and intended to generate findings that would provide a broad-brush understanding of the

data. In essence, the analysis classified a blog comment according to three independent

characteristics. Since the intention was to reveal any emergent relationships among these


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characteristics, the scheme can be considered systematically coherent for the purposes of

this study. Any analysis that attempted to make stronger claims than those presented below

would need to provide a greater justification for its coding scheme on the basis of systematic

coherence.

Table 1 - the three dimensional coding scheme

Dimension Code Interpretation Evidence

C Content-free Comment makes no reference to points in the

original entry.

U Non-reflective(U=unreflective)

Comment makes reference to the originalblog entry, the module content or the general

context in order to state an opinion, emotion

or a point of fact or theory.

Reflection

R Reflective Comment addresses points from the main

blog entry and demonstrates a considerationof the validity of the content, the process orthe underlying premise.

A Agree Comment actively supports the point made inthe original entry.

M Mixed Comment neither supports nor challenges

original entry.

Propositionalstance

D Disagree Comment takes up a contradictory position tothe original entry.

P Positive Comment is encouraging, approving,accepting, etc.

E Even Comment appears affectively neutral.

Affective

N Negative Comment is hostile, discouraging, dismissive,etc.

As might be expected, there were cases in all three dimensions where the appropriate choice

of code was not immediately obvious. In the reflective dimension, problems observed by

Kember et al. (1999) in choosing between degrees of reflection were also evident here. The

example below is part of a widespread debate about the option for individuals to upload

photographs of themselves to the blog environment:

... a picture is not really needed in an organizational profile because you don't have to

imagine the person who you are talking to in order to do a good job.


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Whether this is true reflection, or simply introspection is debatable. Certainly the student is

considering the usefulness of a profile picture from a novel point of view, and in general, such

shifts were counted as reflection.

The affective dimension was generally quite straightforward, although short comments such

as the following sometimes posed difficulties.

Good blog. I also agree that the roles presented to the group helped to create order in

the group.

The question here is whether the introductory use of the phrase Good blog constitutes a

positive affective tone. Although minimal in comparison to the supportive tone of other

comments, the use of such phrases is still a signal that whatever comes next is meant in a

positive way. Such comments were therefore treated as positive for coding purposes.

In the propositional stance dimension, there were several instances of students making two

points in the same comment, one of which was to agree with the original entry, and the other

to disagree or present some other point of view. Where there was internal conflict of this kind,

the comment was generally considered as 'mixed'. On occasion, students would use the

phrase 'I agree' in a comment purely as a supportive device as in the example below. Such

cases were generally not treated as genuine agreement i.e. about an issue relating to the

module content - but rather as examples of positive affective tone:

As Im in your group and sit next to you I agree with everything you say. Lets hope all

our team turn up tomorrow.

Difficulties in examining and recording the data were minimised through the adoption of

Kember et als coding scheme - an established standard in the assessment of reflection - and

adherence to basic rules of good practice in coding (Fielding, 2001, p. 234), for example in

checking that codes were applied consistently across the data set . When, in practice,

problems arose (as described in the examples given above) these were resolved by checking

the context of the comments in question, as well as considering similar cases elsewhere in

the data. This degree of care enhanced the confidence in the coding as a process that

generated reliable output on which to base the research findings.


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Reflective

21%

Non-

reflective

36%

Content-

free

43%

Agree

31%

Indifferent

63%

Disagree

6%

Positive

46%Even

50%

Negative

4%

6. Findings

6. 1 Findings before combination

Some clear patterns emerge when the number of comments in each category along each of

the three dimensions is summarised. Table 2 presents these figures. The proportion of

comments falling into each category is also expressed as a percentage in Table 2.

Table 2 Frequency of occurrence of individual coded categories

Reflection Propositional stance Affective tone

Reflective 189 21% Agree 280 31% Posit ive 417 46%

Non-

reflective

325 36% Mixed 569 63% Even 455 50%

Content-free

391 43% Disagree 56 6% Negative 33 4%

The figures for the affective dimension clearly show a bias towards the positive. These figures

result from students complimenting each other's work, and from a number of other observed

behaviors. One of these is empathy, exemplified by the following comment:

I also became an editor [in the lab exercise] but I understand what you mean about

workload because I was struggling enough before I became editor and got a new job.

The good thing is my team understand. We are all busy, so we are just trying to help

each other out as much as we can.

Some comments went much further in the explicitness of the encouragement offered, for

example:

I enjoyed reading your blog [...] I think you are underselling yourself on your English.

Your blog is better than [that of] most native English speakers I have read, and

Mixed63%


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although I have no reference myself as I never learned a language abroad, I think

most people would recognize its not your native language, and would be patient in

understanding this. Good luck with the rest of it and there is no need to be shy.

Occasionally, a student chose to use a positive affective tone in order to make a criticism

more acceptable. In the case below, the student uses jokes, deliberate misspellings and

emoticons to rebuke a classmate for complaining about the lack of a handout in the lecture:

Maybe it's done for making you [experience] information overload? Seriously, if you

are not able to take some notes [] and that you are not able (or maybe you didn't

think about that) to re-read that at home [] in THIRD year, maybe there is a problem

somewhere :) Oh, and what about the [...] lecture on MAKING notes? Maybe you

were one of those who were laughing [...]? Come on girl, I ain't mad at cha... (I

swear!) :)

This particular example also shows a student referring another to some earlier lecture

material and pointing out its relevance to the current situation, as would be expected of a peer

tutor.

Similarly, in the propositional stance dimension there was a clear bias towards agreement,

even though more than half of all comments neither agreed nor disagreed with the original

blog entry. This finding shows that the students were not deliberately looking for opportunities

to debate with each other in order to demonstrate a reflective approach. The reason for the

tendency to agree with the original author is not absolutely clear. One explanation may be

that there is actually very little true reflection, and the figures are simply evidence of a kind of

groupthink whereby students agree with each other without really considering the content

issues:

I agree with what you are saying here. I have found that the commenting part has

been far more difficult than actually writing my own blogs. This was not just down to

the grammar though, but that other than do the usual "I agree...." or "I disagree...."

what could we actually write in the comments? Even coming up with a meaningful

"subject" for the comment has proved difficult. As if to prove my point, I have even


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done that here! No doubt there will be lots more comments on this blog, and the

majority will all start the same way....

In fact, one quarter of the comments (227 out of 905) began with the words "I agree" or some

close variation such as "I totally agree".

Another interpretation could be that the issues were not being considered at a deep enough

level within the original blog entries to allow any substantive disagreement. Alternatively, this

tendency could simply be observer effect. Since the students were engaged in an activity for

which they would receive marks it is reasonable to assume that individuals did not want to

jeopardize their reward for participation. Thus, as a group, they may well have been inclined

to create positive postings for the sake of the incentive of the final mark. Whether or not this

would have been the case had the requirement to blog not been linked to the final grade for

the module, or the project had been completed by an independent researcher (as opposed to

the class tutors) is open to question. It is evident, however, that many of the students did not

feel inhibited when expressing their views, and in several instances they congratulated one

another on their honesty, as is shown in this early comment:

I really enjoy the fact that you are not scared to write how you feel. I hope there will

be more blogs like yours.

Further research would be required to discover whether these explanations for the positive

tone of the blogs (when taken as a whole set) stand up to scrutiny. It is clear, however, that

such a high level of agreement contributes to a supportive environment. A blog entry was very

unlikely to receive any kind of substantive challenge, and in this environment which may be

regarded as an artifact of the cohorts creation - a student might therefore be expected to feel

empowered to offer honest opinion or self-disclosure without fear of such comments being

rejected.

Initially then, the figures for the reflective dimension might appear disappointing. There was a

clear bias towards comments with little or no reflective content, and this might be taken to

suggest that the blog medium is not as effective as a private learning journal in this respect.

However, a full analysis of the reflective capacity of blogs would have to be based on the

main entries themselves. These are the equivalent of the learning journal entries, and are


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therefore where the greatest level of reflection would be expected. That around a fifth of all

first-level comments exhibit some degree of content, process or premise reflection is therefore

quite encouraging, and suggests that a larger study to investigate the reflective content of the

main blog entries would provide some interesting insights. This would allow comments such

as the one below to be put to the test:

Often I feel it is all too easy to become complacent when carrying out extra studies for

a module after the week comes to an end. When creating the blogs I have been

required to read over the lecture slides and the notes made during the lectures to

help with the production of the blog content. This in a way has helped me to fully take

in what has been discussed during the week.

6.2 Combined findings

The findings of the study can be further elaborated by looking at the distribution of comments

across the 27 possible combinations of the basic codes, as summarised in Table 3.


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Table 3 Distribution of categorised comments in descending order of frequency

Reflection Propositional stance Affective tone No %

Content-free Mixed Positive 202 22.3%

Non-reflective Mixed Even 112 12.4%

Content-free Mixed Even 88 9.7%

Non-reflective Agree Even 83 9.2%

Reflective Mixed Even 67 7.4%

Non-reflective Agree Positive 54 6.0%

Non-reflective Mixed Positive 49 5.4%

Content-free Agree Positive 46 5.1%

Content-free Agree Even 38 4.2%

Reflective Mixed Positive 31 3.4%Reflective Agree Even 31 3.4%

Reflective Agree Positive 25 2.8%

Reflective Disagree Even 23 2.5%

Non-reflective Disagree Even 13 1.4%

Content-free Mixed Negative 12 1.3%

Reflective Disagree Negative 6 0.7%

Non-reflective Disagree Positive 5 0.6%

Non-reflective Mixed Negative 5 0.6%

Reflective Disagree Positive 3 0.3%

Non-reflective Disagree Negative 3 0.3%

Reflective Mixed Negative 3 0.3%

Content-free Disagree Positive 2 0.2%

Content-free Agree Negative 2 0.2%

Non-reflective Agree Negative 1 0.1%

Content-free Disagree Negative 1 0.1%

Reflective Agree Negative 0 n/a

Content-free Disagree Even 0 n/a

The figures in Table 3 show marked disparities in the rates of occurrence of the different

types of comment. By far the most common is the Positive/Content- free/Mixed category,

accounting for more than a fifth of all comments. Since this comment type makes no mention

of the module content, and takes no particular propositional stance regarding the original blog

entry, it might be thought to be of little educational value. However, the positive affective tone


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serves to make the blog environment a supportive and welcoming place for the expression of

ideas as demonstrated by the typical Positive/Content-free/Mixed comments shown below:

Do not worry about your knowledge of portals. Reading your entry I can appreciate

that you - like everyone else in the class - is starting to have a better knowledge of

this technology. Your analogy relating portals with programming languages it is also

pretty good.

Sounds like a hard topic you've got there Craig. Some teams have got topics like

causes, symptoms, etc. Sounds a bit easier. You'll actually be looking at how to solve

information overload. I'm sure you'll succeed in the end :-)

Well put Simon. I was wondering what happened at Monday mornings lecture.

Reading your entry I could almost envisualise the entire lecture. Would have been

nice to some personal comments in there to add a final touch to the entry. Still,

straight to the point and crystal clear understandability. Nice one.

The same kind of support can also be derived from comments of types Positive/ Non-

reflective/Mixed, Positive/Content-free/Agree and Positive/Non-reflective/Agree. These

comments serve more to encourage the original author and other participants than to debate

matters of content. From this point of view, they form a cognate group that might be labelled

'Supportive'. Other such groupings of comment types are shown below in Table 4.


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Table 4 - grouped categories and associated frequencies

Group Included categories Interpretation No %

Supportive Positive/Content -free/AgreePositive/Content -free/MixedPositive/Content -free/Disagree

Positive/Non-reflective/AgreePositive/Non-reflective/MixedPositive/Non-reflective/Disagree

No deepconsideration ofmodule content, but

clearly encouragingto other participants

358 40%

Trivial Even/Non-reflective/MixedEven/Content-free/MixedEven/Unreflective/Agree

Even/Content-free/Agree

Even/Unreflective/DisagreeEven/Content-free/Disagree

No clear reflectionon module content

334 37%

Reflective Positive/Reflective/AgreePositive/Reflective/MixedPositive/Reflective/Disagree

Even/Reflective/AgreeEven/Reflective/MixedEven/Reflective/Disagree

Negative/Reflective/MixedNegative/Reflective/Disagree

Engaging withmodule content at arelatively deep level

189 21%

Destructive Negative/Content -free/Mixed

Negative/Non-reflective/MixedNegative/Content -free/DisagreeNegative/Non-reflective/Disagree

Comments with

negative affectivetone, and making nocontribution to the

debate

21 2%

Unexpected Negative/Content -free/AgreeNegative/Reflective/Agree

Negative/Unreflective/Agree

Logically unlikely 3 0%

This slightly different perspective on the overall nature of the blog environment also shows

that the majority of comments are supportive with a negligible number of destructive postings.

In fact, there was only a single case of extreme destructive behavior that might warrant being

labelled a flame. This was coded as Negative/Unreflective/Disagree:

How do you know that the team needed you to perform the tutorial task if you were

not there? [] Also, have you not let yourself down by not attending the tutorial and

finding out what we did? I would foresee your answer being No, but since you do

not know what we did in the tutorial then I would probably say you let yourself down

by not experiencing some of the simulated problems associated with information


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retrieval. So, in fact, you cannot rely on yourself because you did not show up. So

therefore "you" cannot rely on anyone. Such a lonely world for the big headed people

isnt it? I understand you may have had a bad day and are under some stress, but

misinformation? How do you know it is misinformation? [] You are a rambling idiot.

The category with the smallest membership is labelled Unexpected since the existence of

comments that are negative in tone and which also express agreement with the original blog

entry would be unlikely. This is borne out by the data since the number of examples is

negligible.

In the second largest category of comments are those which make no great contribution

either to the supportive nature of the environment, or to the discussion of module issues.

These comments can be seen as the result of the students' obligation to comment each

others blogs in order to avoid losing marks for the course assessment, and may be

interpreted as a symptom of the requirement for students to contribute to a synthetic blog

community.

It is worth noting that very few of these comments related to housekeeping issues. The

structure of the blog environment with its clear ownership principle would seem to be the

reason for this. However, a further attitudinal investigation would be necessary to discover the

truth of this assumption.

The distribution of comments in the final 'Reflective' category can provide an insight into the

quality of reflection. As discussed earlier, the value of the blog format is that it provides

opportunities for individual students' ideas to be challenged by others. This means that

comments that are reflective, and which take up an opposing position to the original blog

entry, are of the greatest value. In contrast, those that tend to agree with the original blog

entry are of lower value. When a challenging comment is positive in terms of its affective tone,

it is highly likely that it will be to encourage further reflection and debate. This interaction

between propositional stance and affective tone is shown in Figure 1. (Note that Figure 1

also provides directionality for the content of Figure 2 below).


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Figure 1 - Relative value of reflective comments

The reflective comment categories in Table 4 can be used to show the distribution of

comments in terms of their relative value by dividing Figure 1 into a series of eight cells

(bearing in mind that comments coded Negative/Reflective/Agree are not expected). Plotting

the reflective comments in this way shows that the supposedly most valued category of

Positive/Reflective/Disagree is not well represented in the data. The reasons for this cannot

be determined from the available information. The underlying cause could quite possibly

result from the design of the module, rather than some characteristic of the blog environment.

If further investigation were to prove this the case, the proportion of comments falling into this

category could conceivably form the basis of an objective performance indicator for the

module. An increase in the number of supportive, yet challenging, comments could be taken

as an overall indication of the level of reflection on the part of the students.

(The paucity of comments that ostensibly matched the category most valuable category of

Positive/Reflective/Disagree has led to greater attention on the role of the blog hints. Careful

attention to wording is expected to provoke a more critical approach in the students who

comprise the future cohorts of the module.)

Challenge

Support

Increasing valueof contribution


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Figure 2 - Distribution of reflective comments as a percentage of total reflectivecomments

Positive/Reflective/ 13%

Agree


Mixed


Disagree

Even/

Reflective/ 16%Agree

Even/

Reflective/ 36%Mixed

Even/

Reflective/ 12%Disagree

Negative/Reflective/ 2%Mixed

Negative/Reflective/ 3%Disagree

In general, the distribution in Figure 2 shows that most reflective comments are less

supportive than the average. Students who were motivated to discuss module content at a

less superficial level perhaps felt less of a need to surround their thoughts in supportive

language. Indeed, it is in the most populous category of Even/Reflective/Mixed that the

clearest examples of peer support can be found, as illustrated in the example comments

below:

What youve described as a community Im unsure whether its actually a

community [that exhibits] creative abrasion. A community has similar interests and

[individuals] work together creative abrasion [occurs between] people from different

backgrounds (not necessarily just education) that have common knowledge, and

work together doing creative problem solving. I guess you could percieve it in both

ways, although I lean more towards the creative abrasion side.

You wonder why you need to follow this course because you are only going to do

some programming???? Eh, wake up guy, if you are doing this module, there is a

very good reason!!! I dont know if you have already done a placement in a real

organization, but if you think that your job is only to going to [involve going to] work,

sitting down in front of your computer, and programming stuff, youre wrong...How will

you report what you have done and inform your manager that you have done some

work, or that you need more information to accomplish a task?? And if you need

Challenge

Support


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some information from others? How can you do that if nobody knows how to share

their knowledge? It is just my point of view, but try to think about it, especially if you

are a foreign student. (I am one too). Those technologies we are using change very

rapidly and if you dont know how to be aware of this evolution, you will never work

efficiently.

7. Discussion

It can be seen that the deployment of blogs in this particular module created a very supportive

environment for communication amongst the students: the largest single category of first-level

comments serves no other purpose than to encourage other participants. Thus, the main

finding of this work is that the blog environment encourages positive and productive

exchanges in educational settings. In addition to general mutual support, the data analysed

provides examples of explicit peer aid in terms of clarification of the purpose and concepts of

the material covered in the module. This aspect of blogging where a student may adopt the

role of peer tutor is in line with reports from earlier studies (e.g. Walker, 2005). Not all of

these benefits can be offered to students who report their learning in closed environments,

such as the form of a straightforward individual learning journal. In addition, although it is

possible to build interactivity into the creation of traditional learning journals for example, by

prompting class discussion on the basis of journal entries, or asking students to trade entries

and respond in writing the blog environment offers wider possibilities, especially for those in

large groups who study remote from one another. These findings on peer support add to what

has already been articulated in the literature on the theme of blogs and community

engagement. They draw attention to how the software provides more than a mere technology

platform for interaction: it also underpins the scaffold of social infrastructure amongst class

participants. Of particular note here is that the strength of these findings is more prominent

here than has been articulated in previous studies.

As far as reflective learning is concerned, this study has not generated evidence to match the

levels of enthusiasm of previous publications which champion the value of blogs as

mechanisms to boost levels of reflective learning (e.g. Clyde, 2005; Downes, 2004). However,


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it is worth emphasising again here the limitations of the scope of this study: it concentrated on

comments madeon main blog entries, rather than original postings. In addition, given that a

fifth of the comments exhibited some degree of reflection, it is suspected that a more

extensive investigation of the main blog entries would have revealed a good level of

reflection. Since the analysis of the distribution of reflective comments by affective tone and

propositional stance shows that a significant number do challenge the views expressed in the

original blog entry, it can be argued that the blog environment constitutes a useful tool for

reflective learning in a range educational of contexts, even when it emerges in a somewhat

contrived and inauthentic setting. It should also be noted that observations from this data set

reveal that the degree to which comments contribute to peer learning is related to the degree

of reflection in the comments.

It has been demonstrated that the findings of this work have added to the body of knowledge

on the role of blogs in creating a sense of community and encouraging reflective learning in

an educational context. However, they have not revealed any further significant insight into

the two other prominent themes of the published research literature on educational blogging

as discussed above: (1) how blogs encourage thinking through writing (for example, Nardi et

al., 2004), and (2) how they can be used to disseminate information about the class (Downes,

2004). It might be argued that this is not surprising given that the primary purpose of the

research was to examine blog activity with reference to peer learning and peer support, and

the sample postings were those of the students rather than the instructors who might be

expected to use their own blogs to convey to the cohort "housekeeping messages about

class arrangements. A further explanation, which is related to the issue of thinking through

writing, is that studies which promote this blog function focus on blog deployment in courses

where the actual subject of study is writing. For example, the work of Brooks et al. (2004)

considers a number of classes such as English, creative writing and composition theory, and

that of Walker (2005) concerns a course on web design and online communication. It is the

intention of these classes that the blog environment should encourage improvement in writing

skills. In contrast, this was not a goal of the module under examination for the study reported

in this paper.


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